dragonlady7

(in re: Martha Wells discussing characters' sexuality and quoting Neil Gaiman discussing J.K. Rowling's revelation. Also, the lolcat.)

I just meta'd my meta. Also my lolcatter is broke.

They're both absolutely right, of course, and it shouldn't matter.
I feel like a complete idiot, however, because just last week I posted to one of Martha Wells's "ask me questions about writing" posts, and asked about homosexuality in the Syrnai, and her answer was, in short, Of course it's complicated, and It doesn't matter, and I completely see her point and also feel like a bit of an idiot for asking, but I really was curious how homosexuality would work in a culture where men cannot own property.

And so I am forced to disagree with myself. Yes, as a human, it doesn't matter if one is gay or not-- to be probably unwelcomely honest, it's something I've never quite decided about myself (I am in a happy relationship with a man, but have never entirely come to believe that said happiness is indeed caused by his secondary sex characteristics, which are of course spectacular [I believe I'm legally required to insist on saying that] but not entirely the focal point of our relationship-- since I was 18 I've insisted that genitalia really shouldn't be one's primary selecting factor in life partners, and before that I truly honestly didn't care about genitals one way or the other).
And as a writer, a character's gayness-or-not is usually something that reveals itself in its own particular way, much as their left-handedness or blond-or-not-ness or whatever, and is usually far from the most significant thing about them.

But as a fan?
For some reason, it is important. I'm sorry to have to say that.
I'm not at all disagreeing with the authors who say it isn't. It shouldn't be, to them. But it is to fans. Just as a character's left-handedness is (as a southpaw, I tend to take that sort of thing to heart), or non-blondness (that was a major decision for me, to stop writing blond heroines just because I myself was blond, and marked my transition from adolescent writing-for-me-ness), or any of it. Everything about a character is important. Especially if a reader identifies with that character. Any character who has so seized the imagination, any world that has so drawn one in-- everything about it is important, and that is why we slaver over details and spend hours, weeks justifying A/Us and our Ship Of Choice.
It's important.

And I'm not just saying that because last week I was pondering Niles and Giaren and wondering if there was something there or I was just reading too much into it. (Did I blog that? Fie, I think I did not, and now I have no proof that I'm not just saying that now.)
The one I wonder about is Gerard. Not whether he was gay, but what the hell anyone sleeping with him would even be like.